First of all, apologies for not posting for so long. Life’s been a complete bitch and I haven’t used my camera much. There might be some new photos soon, but in the meantime:
One of the few instances where I actually caught The Light in time.
Most photographers that are into nature photography, amateurs and professionals alike, are always hunting for the elusive Light. The Light with a capital L is that particular sort of light that can transform an ordinary subject into a stunning one. The spice, if you will, that makes a photo memorable.
If we are not searching for The Light, we are searching for that damn camera, which we of course cannot find or don’t have nearby when The Light is actually there.
I saw The Light today. It was on the ferry between Lavik and Oppedal in Western Norway, I was driving back to Bergen after a brief stay at home, and I had expected nothing but snowy weather and as good as no view at all. My good camera was in Bergen anyway, so I couldn’t use that, but I could have brought my old one, which currently lives at my parents’ house. I was not very happy, to put it that way.
How did it look? It was a golden light that illuminated the sky and was reflected in the fjord and the mountains. It stood out against the dark blue rainclouds further away, outlining them in a way, and the starch white of the ferry was coloured completely golden. There was a lot of detail going on and very little of the fuzziness that you usually find with clouds, and the colour combinations were just breath-taking.
But of course it never occurred to me before leaving that there might be something to photograph. Lesson learnt.
I actually remembered my camera this time!
Of course, that’s what I said last time too, and it turned out that I never learnt that lesson. It doesn’t exactly help that Bergen weather is notoriously unpredictable, and it never turns out the way you expect.
Most of the times when I see The Light I am utterly unprepared. Usually when I’m out running in the evenings, around the lake, and cannot bring a camera even if I wanted to (my poor knees have, by far, enough weight to carry). Some evenings the lake is entirely still, there is not even a hint of wind or raindrops – a rarity for Bergen, let me tell you – and there is a nice fog just far enough away to make it really, really beautiful, the sky is slightly illuminated from the lights of the city centre behind, and there’s a row of brightly lit houses that are reflected in the lake.
It might not look like much, but sometimes the right Light is subtle.
Other times I’m simply too late. Either there’s no time to run home to grab my camera. Other times I barely manage to run out onto my balcony, only to discover that the light is disappearing or that some building is ruining the whole shot.
So instead, I have a long list of could-have-been shots and situations that keep annoying me.
What are your could-have-been moments or photos?
I’ll write more about Light next week, if I manage to write somewhat coherently. I’m an amateur, and feel like much of what I know and do are guesswork. Like knowing what people would like to read about (*hint*)
And there are more to come!
